Theros Spoiler: Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Erebos, God of the Dead, Whip of Erebos

Check out the current spoiler at MTGSalvation for more!

A few more cards have been spoiled that tickle my fancy. And by "my fancy," I generally lean toward blue and black. There's nothing quite like swinging with demons and drawing cards.

Up first! This guy:

 

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - he weaves... nightmares! Cool artwork. At 3 mana, easily castable, too. The +2 isn't too exciting on its own, but the -X ability is pretty awesome. And the -10 is as backbreaking as any planeswalker ultimate should be. It's my understanding that Wizards hasn't been moving forward with publishing Magic novels. Too bad. I'd like to read more about what makes this guy tick.


With an opening act like that, what do we do for a follow up? How about a dark god and his toys:



When I saw the artwork for Erebos before the card was actually spoiled, I was brimming with excitement. Check that guy out! A 5/7 indestructible for 4 mana is certainly nothing to sneeze at, even with the devotion requirement. Plus, card drawing. Yes! Add in his sexy whip and boom, we've got life gain to fuel all that card drawing. The tap ability on the Whip looks good enough to throw into just about any deck looking to get some mid-to-late-game mileage out of dead creatures without too much fuss.

How are we going to cast all these cool spells in Theros? How about with some cool temples:



Temple of Deceit is only one of a cycle of temples for different color combinations. I am not a fan of lands that come into play tapped. They stop me from casting my spells right away and I hate that! Now! Now! Er, anyway. What I am a big fan of is scrying. Well, lookie here. These temples (get it?) scry 1 when they come into play (get it?!). I'm not sure that this makes the cut in my three-color Commander decks since it does still come into play tapped, but it's worth a try.


This card seems good:





Hero's Downfall reminds me of something. What could it be?



Oh, that's right. Dammit Wizards. Really? Tag "or planeswalker" on there and bump it to rare is your plan? For crying out loud.

Moving on.

Here's a couple of fun cards I'd probably never run in my Commander decks, but hey look at all the flavor!



I can't wait to see someone alter the Akroan Horse into an Akroan Bunny. You know that's going to happen! And the flavor text on the Fabled Hero makes me think of how you'd write a hero for a Disney movie (with artwork to match).

Up last, check out this beard:



Prognostic Sphinx is in the running for best beard in Magic, I'd wager. Scry, scry, scry. It's cool flavor for this set. It fits with Sphinx creatures in general. And, I love it. I run Darksteel Pendant in anything that's not blue just so that I can manipulate my library. I wish it was discard a card to scry 3 instead of attacking to make it happen. There are too many times that I don't want to attack, but I always (always) want to scry.